TWO well-educated men who turned to crime to try to pay off their debts have been jailed over a petrol station robbery.

Mohammed Lal, 20, and Aslam Amar, 27, from Woking - neither of whom had a criminal record - appeared at Guildford Crown Court on Friday charged with robbery after hitting and tying up garage attendant Ravishekar Kaitha and then stealing money.

They both pleaded guilty to the offence and were sentenced by Judge Christopher Critchlow.

Laura Plant, prosecuting, said: “Mr Kaitha was on duty on his own on January 10, 2010 at the Pantiles service station in London Road.

“His shift started at 2pm and the last customer left the shop at around 9.30pm. Mr Kaitha began to close the shop at 9.40pm.

"At 9.41pm exactly he turned off the lights, he was just going through his routine when he saw the defendants come into the shop through the front door. Both men were wearing dark masks and gloves.”

The court heard that the men were shouting and they pushed Mr Kaitha behind the counter onto the floor.

Ms Plant said: “He said one of them hit him really hard on the left side of his face with his hand. He described that it really hurt his left cheek and left jaw and he couldn’t hear properly for about 15 minutes afterwards.

“He recalls both men were shouting ‘where’s the safe, where’s the safe’. He was pushed towards the back office, but he wasn’t able to tell them where the safe was. He tried to explain that only the manager has access to the office and the safe.

“Then one man went back into the shop and returned with brown packing tape. That was used to tie the complainant’s wrists together very tightly. They also tied his legs together.”

Eventually the robbers left the store with approximately £415 in cash and two bottles of vodka.

Debts and drinking

The court heard that when they left Mr Kaitha struggled to his feet and put the forecourt lights on so that the offenders might be caught on CCTV, and he also called the police.

Meanwhile, PC David Richards had been passing the petrol station in an unmarked police car and noticed that something did not seem right.

He stopped and called for assistance, but when the robbers came out of the store he used his taser gun to prevent them from getting away and they were subsequently arrested.

Defence barrister for Lal, Michael Hillman, told the court that his client had achieved 10 good GCSE grades at school and had worked at Tesco and Hobbycraft, and then at Budgens in Bramley where he had considerable responsibility.

He decided upon the garage robbery after being involved in a car crash which left him in heavy debt of around £5,000 in insurance excess and which caused him to become stressed and begin drinking.

The court also heard that this week Lal was due to travel with all his family to Kashmir where he was supposed to be getting married.

“This is a very painful lesson that he is going to have to learn over the course of his near future,” said Mr Hillman.

Defending Aslam, solicitor John Evans said that after coming out of university the defendant had not been able to find employment for two years, despite having a good job in a bank before going to study.

He also became riddled with debts and began drinking.

Mr Evans said: “It is perhaps unfortunate that he met Mr Lal at this time, when both were experiencing financial difficulties for different reasons and therefore came up with this plan together.”

Judge Critchlow sentenced Lal, of Boundary Road, and Aslam, of Eve Road, to four-and-a-half years in jail, of which they will each serve half.

Addressing the defendants, the judge said: “We have heard that you are deeply ashamed of what you have done, now you will have to face up to custody.

“In each of the cases these sentences are as short as the court consider consistent with public duty to deter this sort of offence.”